Any views or opinions expressed in this column are of the individual, group, or entity who submitted it and not the publication, owner(s), its advertisers, or affiliates.
By David Stephen
There is a recent [August 12, 2026] story in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Montco joins thousands of others in suing social media giants over harms to teen mental health, stating that, “Montgomery County on Tuesday sued some of the nation’s largest social media companies in a Northern California federal court, joining nearly 3,000 actions from parents, school districts, cities, counties, and states that say the platforms are harming the mental health of children and teens.”
“Montgomery County is suing Meta, ByteDance, Snap, and Google on behalf of the county’s 148 schools and more than 180,000 minor students, the filing said. It accused the companies and their popular products — including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok — of negligence and creating a public nuisance.”
“Montgomery County’s lawsuit is one of nearly 3,000 cases before a Northern District of California judge through a mechanism called multidistrict litigation. The process allows the federal court system to handle a large volume of similar complaints in one court, usually leading to a number of bellwether trials that help assess the value of a potential global settlement.”
“Also on Tuesday, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday sued ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, in a Pittsburgh state court. That lawsuit accuses the company of creating an intentionally addictive platform and serving inappropriate content to teens as young as 13.”
There is another recent [August 13, 2026] report on NBC News, Families concerned about reports of mental health crisis on USS Lincoln, stating that, “Families of marines are voicing concern over reports about the USS Abraham Lincoln, a naval aircraft carrier based in San Diego that has been in the Middle East supporting the Iran war for over 200 days. Families say their loved ones onboard are dealing with food shortages, plumbing problems and mental health issues. NBC News’ Dan De Luce reports on the lawmakers demanding answers and the broader implication that the war in Iran is having on the military.”
Estimating Mental Health by Mind Safety and Visualization
Mental health can be exacerbated by external conditions, but continuing to solve every external problem linked with mental health may leave an endless loop, in part because what may be worse for some individuals may not be for others.
So, while it is important to ensure that situations that may trigger negative mental health on average are thoroughly mitigated, it is necessary to know what the mind is doing, each time, in a situation of [say] a bad mental state.
Simply, as digital health products have become constant in how people prevent conditions and prioritize health management, it is feasible to extend visualization to it, for mind displays of mental health.
This should approximately answer what the mind is doing in situations. This means that instead of saying there is pleasure, reward, displeasure, irritation, craving, anger, and so forth. The components of the mind and their mechanisms would be displayed, for a broader way to see situations in the external for the mind.
Components of mind are theorized to be electrical and chemical signals of neurons. Their mechanisms are their interactions and attributes. These would be extended into a dynamic flowchart, so as to place functions.
The human mind is postulated to carry out four major functions: memory, emotion, feeling and regulation of internal senses. These major divisions have several subdivisions. Memory can be described as where basic interpretations occurs, for what is in the external world.
But memory has two important subdivisions, caution and consequences. The mind often relays through these areas, to keep actions, and behaviors in check. Whatever makes both bypassed, exposes risks to the mind.
Visualizing the mind, from conceptual brain science, can become a mind-safety approach to easing how to mental health is understood across instances, helping to places response, reactions and caution against worse outcomes.
It can be a pop-up that accompanies social media applications, showing how to be cautious in real-time and providing summaries after sessions, to prevent risks or exposures in the next. It can also be useful for mental health of those in active military service as well as veterans.
There is an aspect of the problem of mental health, with not knowing what it is, showing this display, is a solution to that aspect. It also replaces labels and descriptions used in the DSM-5-TR.
The approach can be explored as an electrochemical psychiatry project using the postulate presented in Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology.
The NIH Brain Initiative can look at this for counties and school districts across the United States. The NIH Brain Initiative can also explore how it can shape protection for teens, even as lawsuits continue against social media giants. It is possible to get this prioritized from Pennsylvania, as well starting this month, say from August 17, 2026, to measure mental health.
